I currently serve as Director for Preservation at the Library of Congress, where I am responsible for the Directorate’s four Divisions — Collections Management, Conservation, Preservation Services, and Research and Testing — and for working with staff across the Library to provide access to a rich, diverse, and enduring source of knowledge to inform and inspire people in their intellectual and creative endeavors.
The full content of my curriculum vitae is provided through the links below:
- Employment, Consulting, and Freelance Work
- Education, Certification, and Training
- Teaching and Workshops
- Professional Service
- Publications and Presentations
- In the Press
Prior to joining the Library of Congress, I worked on preservation and collection management in a variety of settings, large and small, public and private. Most recently, I served as Executive Director of the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP), which was founded by Columbia University Library, Princeton University Library, and the New York Public Library, and recently joined by Harvard University Library, to advance their shared goals of growing and caring for library and archival collections and making those materials available to researchers.
Before ReCAP, I served as Director of Library and Archives at Brooklyn Historical Society, a 150 year old library, archive, and museum in Brooklyn, NY. In 2008, I had the opportunity to start a preservation program for UCLA Library, where I served as Preservation officer until 2012. Prior to this, from 2005-2008, I worked as the Field Service Librarian and Acting Head of Collection Care in the Preservation Division of The New York Public Library. I began my career at Indiana University, where I earned my Masters in Library and Information Science and held a series of jobs that culminated in a position as the head of the E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory, from 1999-2005.
My work has taken me across the United States and abroad, to work on digital preservation, collection-wide preservation strategies, and disaster recovery efforts. Highlights of my professional work include developing the American Library Association’s Definitions of Digital Preservation and working with the Library of Congress on the National Digital Stewardship Residency and the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Program; developing a preservation program for UCLA Library and leading research projects that explored scarcity issues in preservation; and working in Liberia to salvage Liberian documents and support the development of records management and historic archives practices. In September 2013, this led to a trip to Liberia to install an exhibition featuring Liberia’s recently recovered 1847 Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the first time these documents had been on public view in generations.
I have been active in preservation education and professional development throughout my career, teaching classes for graduate library students (at the Pratt Institute and Indiana University), supervising internships, and giving seminars for library professionals and the general public. I am past-Chair of the the American Library Association (ALA) Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS), served on the steering committee of the California Preservation Program, and have served as chair of several American Library Association Interest Groups and Working Groups. My writing is published in the professional literature and here, at jacobnadal.com.
How to refer to me: if using titles: (Mr.) Jacob Nadal, Director for Preservation; using surnames: Nadal surnames; using full name: Jacob Nadal; using personal name: Jake; appropriate pronouns are he/him in English, cis-male in other languages.